TriBop RePosted
by PaulLevine
Summary: TriBop's Adventures Continue in Chapter 4. The battle between Spike and Midvalley has begun, a mysterious figure now knows of the Bebop crew,and Vash the Stampede encounters a man by the name of Mines. What reason lies behind the sudden attacks?
1. Chapter 1: The Big Bounty Head

It was a day just like any other; the night skies of space still covered the atmosphere around him, the budget was still low, and his stomach was still constantly empty. Spike Spiegel (a bounty hunter who commonly called himself an "Old Fashioned Cowboy") laid back on the yellow couch set at the side of the lounge area. His head still ached from the last bounty head he caught, and he couldn't help but poke at the deep scar that become embedded in his forehead. The moment his pointer ran over the scar his left eye would twitch, but not because of the physical pain, but more the mental anguish of actually being weakened during a bounty chase.  
  
"Hey Spike, dinners almost ready," Jet hollered joyously from the kitchen area.  
  
Spike only opened his eyes and grunted. He knew that when Jet said 'dinner', what he meant was whatever food was leftover for the last year. The taste was never great and the food was never well prepared, but it kept him alive nonetheless. Following his policy of 'hunger is the greatest spice', he would close his eyes and just eat what was presented to him without giving it a second thought.  
  
He could ear Ed and Ein continue their pointless and inane barking of joy over food already, and again his eye began to twitch. It's amazing how before he got involved with this large group of fellow crew members that he could simply close his eyes and fall asleep at any moment. But with such characters as Ed, Ein, and Faye walking around ihis/i domain, naps were a thing of the past.  
  
"You know, you really do rest too much," the opinionated female voice broke Spike's second silence of the day. He lazily opened his eyes a bit and peered out of the corner of his eye to see Faye Valentine sitting on the couch adjacent to him and picking up the remote. She shot him a glance and without giving his feelings a second thought, "It's not like you got hurt that bad over the last bounty, I highly doubt you need eleven hours of sleep to brush off a little scar"  
  
Spike's eye, again, twitched. He didn't audibly respond, but his dead glare at Faye was enough of a response. Faye responded with a simply 'humph' before lifting the remote up towards the personal computer television and switching it on, making sure to switch to channel 277. Immediately, the tune of 'Big Shot' spread its sound waves throughout the Bebop.  
  
"Howdy y'all, how y'all doing?" introduced the African American cowboy, with the horribly cheap Texas accent.  
  
"Shucks howdy, it's time for Big Shot," said the beautiful Caucasian blonde female, whose cleavage literally spilled from her opened white vest, which immediately caught the attention of Spike. Faye's lip curled in disgust as Spike's eyes opened a bit wider to view the female on the screen.  
  
"Now it's time for today's Hhhhhot news," said the African American cowboy, as a graphic of a wooden sign that said 'Hot News' popped up with a symbol of noose in the center of it. Suddenly, a picture of a handsome young man appeared on the screen before them. The man had long spiked blonde hair, deep blue eyes that a female could immediately fall for, and a comical grin. The next photo that flashed before the screen was one of the same man in a more serious tone, with his beautiful blue eyes hidden behind orange tinted sunglasses. His expression was much angrier, and he held a large Silver Raging Bull against his shoulder.  
  
"Wow, he's cute," Faye commented.  
  
"Wow, what a cutie," chimed in the blonde cowboy.  
  
"All women are the same," grunted Spike.  
  
"What are you saying Ma'am?" asked the African American enthusiastically, "This is one of the biggest criminals of all time in the history of the entire universe and 'joo are calling him cute?"  
  
"I'm well aware of that, sugar, but you have to admit he's quite the looker," said the blonde cowboy behind a blushed face as she looked at the photo in her hand, "Wow, what a dreamy guy, it's a shame he's a wanted criminal"  
  
"Hey guys, food's ready," Jet shouted from the kitchen area as he poked his head out from the room. When he received no audible reply, he couldn't help but peer over and watch the screen that Faye and Spike had found quite interesting.  
  
"but this ain't no ordinary criminal, this here's the biggest in the barn," shouted the African American cowboy, "This man is worth $$60,000,000,000!"  
  
"Sixty million double dollars?" questioned Spike, "How much is that in woo longs?"  
  
"That is 3,000,000,000 Woo longs y'all!"  
  
"Three Billion Woo longs?!" Faye, Jet and Spike questioned in disbelief simultaneously. Ed suddenly appeared from the ceiling, hanging like a bat from one of the ceiling's rafters, as she looked confusedly at the screen before stretching her arms over her head and reading the text underneath the price of this new bounty head.  
  
"Vash the Stampede; oooh, he's a bad man: he caused the complete destruction of two towns.boom boom, bye bye," Ed chimed in as 'Big Shot' continued to explain the man behind the extreme bounty head, "Bad boy Vash- person also is wanted for blasting a hole through one of the moon's on his planet.oo la la"  
  
"Wait, did you say he blasted a hole through a moon?" Faye asked questionably.  
  
"That's what it says," chimed Ed.  
  
"Puh-lease, there is no way a human being could do that," Faye said matter- of-factly, as she pulled a cigarette from the back pocket of her cargo brown shorts (commonly worn after a shower) and lit the cancer stick up to have a good smoke.  
  
"I don't care what he's done and what he hasn't done, the bounties good.I'm going for it," Spike said with a devilish grin before sitting up on the couch and stretching his arms and shoulders out.  
  
"You sure about this, Spike?" asked a concerned Jet, "You know the rules of the bounty hunter game. The higher the bounty, the higher the risk"  
  
And as Jet looked over at Spike, who began indulging in Jet's specialty food 'bell peppers and beef' (which was really only bell peppers drenched in vegetable oil). Spike responded, behind a mouth full of terrible food.  
  
"And the higher the risk, the higher my interest"  
  
***  
  
"Vash the Stampede, the man worth $$60,000,000,000; just the man I've been waiting to see," the voice came from a sturdy man that stood at about 6'5" and weighed in at about three hundred pounds. The man was pure muscle, and the gun he pointed at his adversary was nothing short of trigger happy, as a bullet fired off and only missed the blonde haired bounty by about six inches.  
  
"You've got a pretty little bounty on your head, pretty boy. What I like about you the most has got to be the excitement of finding you little man. Although I am curious how the hell a runt like you could cause so much damage; but why question something so easy to catch?" he said behind an arrogant laugh.  
  
"Now listen, pal, I don't think you have the right guy," the spiky blonde- haired man said with a nervous smile stretched across his face, "If I was Vash the Stampede, wouldn't I be able to escape the predicament by killing you?"  
  
The burly man contemplated what his adversary said, but shook it off with a hint of a laugh, "It's funny how I see your gums flapping, but all that's secreting from your mouth is human excrement. Don't you know by now that your picture is posted all over the universe these days?"  
  
At the moment the mysterious bounty hunter said this, Vash's face simply dropped in shock. His eyes turned to wide open circles, and his jaw literally dropped to the ground. But in a flash of a second, Vash quickly re-composed himself and attempted to come up with another excuse to escape the bounty hunter.  
  
"Hehe, would you believe that it's my evil twin?" Vash jokingly questioned as he scratched the back of his head.  
  
*BANG~!*  
  
"AAAH!" Vash screamed girlishly, as a bullet went straight through his long spiky locks of hair. Vash literally froze in a split legged crouch position, as pieces of blonde hair drifted in front of his face. Sweat beaded down Vash's face, as he slowly lifted his head to look over at the bounty hunter.and to see that the black pistol was now pointed at his head.  
  
"AAAH!" he screamed again as the bullet came free from the pistol, only to completely miss Vash the Stampede. The hunter became frustrated as he quickly aimed once more, only to have Vash dive forward and completely avoid the bullet once again.  
  
"God damn it, stand still!" he shouted as he shot another four bullets towards Vash; everyone of them hitting nothing but the sandy ground below.  
  
In a desperate act to save himself Vash found a large boulder set afar and charged for it as fast as he could as bullets rained from behind him like small bits of hail coming down from the skies. Vash quickly took shelter as fast as he could by diving behind the large rock boulder and pressing his back against it, as bullets continued to fire at him.  
  
"Son of a bitch," the bounty hunter exclaimed as he began to reload.  
  
Vash, instinctively, heard the clicks of the bullet case being release and found his opportunity to get out of harms way. Vash, in a flash of a few mere seconds, shifted his weight to the left. This allowed Vash to roll over to his stomach and push up with his feet, charging towards his adversary. The bounty hunter saw Vash charging as fast as he could and began fumbling with his disarmed pistol, attempting to get the new bullet case into the damn pistol. As he continued to fumble, he suddenly felt a strong force come up from under him. It was in one swift motion that Vash rushed forward and sent his right foot into the air, kicking the pistol clear from the assailant's grasp and sending it about twenty yards away.  
  
The bounty hunter, astonished at the speed and quickness of Vash the Stampede, froze for a moment and stared at his bounty head in complete amazement. If it weren't for the fact that Vash was his target, he would've happily applauded the man in his extreme fighting skills. But as he stared in awe at Vash, the stare soon turned from awe into embarrassment.  
  
"Oh yeah, field goal kick.it's GOOD! Oh yeah!" Vash said enthusiastically as he began to do a victory dance in front of his adversary, "Now what you going to do? Huh? You can't hurt me without your gun.HA HA HA HA HA HA HA H."  
  
Suddenly, the arrogant and annoyingly laugh of Vash the Stampede was cut off. His mouth suddenly shifted to the side, along with his jaw, as a powerful force came careening into his jaw. It was a stiff right handed closed fist punch by the bounty hunter that immediately sent Vash into the air backwards and ending with a crash landing into the ground. Vash quickly began squirming on the ground, holding his jaw and complaining out loud.  
  
"Ow! What the heck did you do that for?" he said behind a whine, "I was only kidding around, you don't have to play so rough!"  
  
"Do you think this is some kind of game?" the hunter grunted out angrily, "I'm going to kick your sorry ass"  
  
The nameless hunter clenched his right fist into a ball and swung forward towards Vash, but the red cloaked wonder quickly did a cartwheel to the left to avoid the hit. The hunter quickly switched his focus and threw a left uppercut towards Vash's jaw, but the Stampede bent his head and neck backward to avoid the impact. And, as if in slow motion, Vash grabbed the hunter's left arm that he had just swung, placed his boot into the hunter's stomach and flipped the anonymous bounty hunter over his head with a standard one legged monkey toss. The hunter landed back-first into the sand, as Vash quickly got to his feet and begged the hunter off.  
  
"I really don't like fighting, mister, so maybe we should just stop. I don't want anyone to get hurt here," Vash said with great innocence in his voice, and all around concern behind a joyous smile.  
  
***  
  
"You both ready?"  
  
Both Spike Spiegel and Faye Valentine entered their respective ships, as Jet controlled it all from the control room of the Bebop. With a transistor radio in his grasp, Jet asked both members of the Bebop of their status as the cargo ship hovered over the uncharted planet of Vash the Stampede. It took quite some hacking on Ed's part to attempt to find the home village of the $$60,000,000,000 reward, but after breaking into the Earth Police Forces' data banks, Ed had cracked the location of the rebuilding planet. It was located in a completely different solar system, one that took the Bebop crew quite sometime to reach. To be exact, it was three galaxies away from their home galaxy.quite a trip.  
  
"For the time we spent on the ship, this guy better be there," Faye said in a frustrated tone.  
  
"I repeat, are you ready?" Jet asked once more.  
  
"I'm ready to go, Jet," Spike said calmly as he began to put on his black driver gloves while whistling a soft tune within the confines of the Swordfish II.  
  
"And you, Faye?"  
  
"I was born ready," Faye responded.  
  
"Okay, now remember, we need to use the transistor radios for this mission to reach one another. Unfortunately, this planet has yet to build satellites for electronic communications. But we can use the radio waves of their routine radio dishes to keep in contact, make sure not to damage any of the dishes I installed on your ships, got it?" Jet ordered.  
  
"No electronic communications, what is this place anyway? It's like we've taken a blast from the past," Faye complained.  
  
"Well, seeing as you yourself are a blast from the past, maybe you should tell us what kind of a place this is," joked Spike as he grinned devilishly. Jet also responded with a slight chuckle, as Faye only huffed in anger at both men and gave them the complementary reaction of.  
  
"Blow out it your ass"  
  
"Okay, okay; let's get going on this one. This is a big one, so let's not blow it. If you need me for anything, contact me," Jet said professionally, "I'm opening the gates now, I'll be available on Line 2.Spike, Faye.good luck"  
  
It was at that moment that Jet tuned his radio to the second line of communication, muting himself from Faye and Spike for a moment. Jet lit a cigarette and placed the flamed cancer stick into his mouth and sucked the ash from its contents. Meanwhile, on line 1, Faye and Spike remained connected.  
  
"Hey Spike, you think this guy's as bad as they say he is?" Faye asked curiously.  
  
Spike responded with a continuation of his soft whistle tune before audibly responding to Faye's question, "For some reason, I don't think this is going to be that hard."  
  
"But he committed all those crimes, you heard what Ed said"  
  
"I know that.but for some reason, I almost feel at ease. You know what they say; a trouble thought leads to a troubled event, but a mind that's calm leads to easy traveling," Spike said arrogantly as he started his engine and began to thrusters.  
  
"That was an awful attempt at sounding poetic, Spike"  
  
"Yeah.I know" 


	2. Chapter 2: Death and Despair

The atmosphere was the roughest to force their ships through. Unlike other planets they had visited this one lacked a space traffic system, which made passing through atmospheres much more stable. This planet was much more rural than the rest, and as the Swordfish II and the Redtail passed through the heated atmosphere for the uncharted planet and soared through the skies. As the two ships soared by the clouds, the pilots couldn't help but look down at the world they traveled and realize how sans-technology it truly was. Nothing but wide open sandy plains infested this world, and not a town in sight.  
  
"What the hell?" annoyingly question Spike Spiegel, pilot of the Swordfish II. Spike quickly took to his transistor radio and switched it to channel one in order to reach his fellow partner on the Bebop, "Jet, are you sure this is the right place? I don't see a town anywhere"  
  
Faye quickly tuned into channel 1, as her Redtail sailed beside the Swordfish II, "Jet, you better have got this right"  
  
"Calm down, it's the right place," responded Jet behind a cracked system (the radio was obviously faulty and barely working), "I told you this place was nearly empty, population was below two thousand. You're going to have a travel a bit before you reach any towns"  
  
"So, we're basically on a wild goose chase in the middle of nowhere?" Faye rhetorically asked behind a frustrated tone.  
  
"Listen, for a bounty like this you have to expect some sort of work. A bounty this big isn't just handed to you. So stop complaining and just look," Jet responded in the same frustrated tone as Faye, obviously annoyed by her constant complaining. Faye only responded to Jet's answer with disgusted 'humph'.  
  
"So I guess we don't have many choices," Spike said as he contemplated on the next step. He looked over to the Redtail, who was driven by Faye, and called out to her via the radio once more, "Faye, the only thing we can do now is search this planet for towns and information. You go west and I'll go east, and if we find information, we'll contact one another. Just make sure to keep your radio with you at all times"  
  
"Fine," Faye grunted out, "I thought this was going to be adventurous, but instead were flying around like a pair of lost souls"  
  
"Well, we've been doing that for years, shouldn't hurt us to continue," Spike chimed in before going by to his calming whistle. Faye cocked an eyebrow up at Spike's comment, but debated against retorting towards it. She simply nodded towards Spike and headed west while Spike shifted the Swordfish II over to the East. As the two pilots parted ways in search for towns on this uncharted land, Jet remained silent in his ship.  
  
He had to remain where he was and stay grounded so that the radio dish on the Bebop could reach out across the planet. As Jet reached into his pocket and pulled out a cigarette, he could hear Ed's voice in the background playing with Ein. He brought the cigarette to his mouth, trapped it and lit a match against the Bebop's wall. And as he began to puff in the nicotine smoke, Ed lifted Ein off the ground and looked into his black eyes and chimed.  
  
"With all that money, Ed and Ein will have LOTS of food," she giggled as Ein agreed with an over enthusiastic and joyous bark.  
  
***  
  
The $$60,000,000,000 bounty head raced through the sandy fields in the brown sand vehicle in a hurry. Vash never meant to actually harm his adversary so terribly. He still dreaded what he did and cussed himself beneath his breathe for doing it. No matter what circumstances, there is always a way to avoid death: that was a motto Vash lived by and would forever live by. No one has the right to take a life of another: said by the only woman he actually cared for. As the sand buggy continued racing through the sand, Vash couldn't help but look into the back seat and check on the injured bounty hunter. The burly and muscular man remained sprawled out in the back seat, as blood drained from his large bullet wound which remained scarred into his chest, possibly his heart. Vash gritted his teeth in despair and cried out over his shoulder.  
  
"I'm going as fast as I can, I know there's a town about five miles from here with a hospital," Vash cried out in concern, "I promise I'll get you there, just don't die on me. Please, just don't die."  
  
Death was something that only god himself should take care of. A human being, or a humanoid plant in Vash's case, has no right to take the life of another living organism. The memory still plagued his thoughts over and over again. He knew there was another way to avoid shooting the man, but it wasn't noticeable to him just yet. When he saw the man lift his gun directly into Vash's chest, he knew his mind was so full of fear that it blinded him of his morals. He knew that if he had just remained calm that he could've avoid lifting his own Silver Raging Bull Pistol and pulling trigger. He knew there had to have been some other way to avoid harm to himself without harming this man so badly. Vash's blood curdled and his spine shivered once he heard the man let out an agonizing cry of bloody murder.  
  
Vash took another look over his shoulder at the man and could see that blood was pouring out of his open wound, staining the entire backseat and his body. While one hand remained grasped on the wheel, Vash used his left hand to rip off a sleeve of his velvet red coat and place it upon the open wound of his fallen victim. As a cold sweat rushed over his body, Vash placed both man's hands upon the piece of cloth and cried out, "Hold this firmly on there, it'll keep the wound from getting infected and hold the blood in you.HEY! Are you still with me?"  
  
The man only cried out in pain once more, the feeling of any sort of material touching the raw wound sent a chill of agonizing pain throughout his body, a pain he could not tolerate. Even he, a very muscular and powerful man, couldn't withstand this amount of pain of a large bullet hole in the upper part of his chest. It was a miracle he hadn't died yet, a miracle Vash would take advantage of. With nothing but nervousness circling his emotions, Vash quickly adverted his attention to the sandy plains and pressed his foot as hard as he could onto the ignition pedal.  
  
"Can't this thing go any faster?" Vash shouted in frustration as he pushed all his weight onto the pedal and forced the vehicle to as fast as it could through the sand. Waves of sand blew past the vehicle's path, it looked as if a sand hurricane was built around them as they blew past the hilly plains, "Just stay alive, I'm begging you, we're almost there!"  
  
"Please, just stay alive!"  
  
***  
  
Faye was beginning to get very annoyed by this whole adventure. Even with 3,000,000,000 Woo Longs on the line, Faye couldn't help but become frustrated at the whole ordeal. Her eyes lazily traveled up and down the sandy dunes of land as she tapped her finger against one of her motion handles. She soon rested her elbow upon her knee, and rested her chin upon her own palm and she boringly scanned the land below.  
  
"Ugh, this is so stupid," she complained to herself, "A beautiful woman like me shouldn't be doing this hard labor. I should be basking in front of a mansion, getting a beautiful tan and getting waited on hand and foot. But instead I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere, looking for a guy who might not even be here"  
  
She than figured the only form of entertainment she had was the radio. She eyed the radio out of the corner of her eye, and deep down she knew that she shouldn't play with the channels. Jet had warned her, prior to agreeing to this mission, that they couldn't use the radios or else the signals from her ship to the Bebop (or even to the Swordfish II) could malfunction. But at this point, after two hours of simply soaring through an empty sky, she was willing to take the risk and listen to some music. But as she lifted her silky white hand towards the radio's knob, she realized something very significant.  
  
She was in the middle of no-where; there probably wasn't a radio station anywhere on this inane planet.  
  
"Ugh," she grunted out frustratingly, "I can't even listen to my music. I knew I should've brought my walkman to this trip, what the hell stopped me?"  
  
Again she rested her chin on her hand as she lazily scanned the area below her. She was so used to planets like Venus, Mars, or even Earth; at least they had villages, towns and cities at every turn. On those planets, you actually felt like you weren't the only one alive. On this rural and pathetic planet, she felt like she was the only human being on it. It was somewhat eerie, but also very dull. She needed the bright lights of the cities, the excitement of the races, and the exoticness of the male life- forms around those said cities. Hell, even a bar would've sufficed in these conditions. Granted, she was never really into the 'lounging' scene, but she would go for anything at this point. At this point she'd place a bet on a snail race, rather than just dangling in the sky like a wind chime. Suddenly, the radio began to form static, someone was reaching her.  
  
"Faye, any luck?"  
  
Jet Black, still on the Bebop, called into Faye.  
  
"Nothing, I swear this place is more barren than anything I've ever seen," Faye grunted out, "Can I go now? It's obvious we're on the wrong planet"  
  
"Don't accuse me of giving false information just because you're bored out of your skull," Jet hissed back angrily, "This is the right planet, I checked the damn thing ten times. This is the right coordinates given to us by the Mars and Earth's police force. Vash the Stampede is around there somewhere, so just find a town and ask questions.and stop complaining."  
  
"I have nothing to do here but complain. You don't know how it is being on a ship with absolutely nothing to do. It's torture, Jet, you hear me? TORTURE," shouted out Faye, "You have no idea what I'm going through"  
  
"I do so"  
  
"No you don't," hissed out Faye, before Jet could finish his sentence, "You have Ed and Ein there to keep you company. You have the ships electrical unit to keep you busy. You can listen to music. You can eat some food. What the hell do I have?"  
  
"You have peace and quiet," Jet said matter-of-factly, "I'd switch places with you in a heartbeat, Faye. I can't get up and make food, because that takes time; time I need to spend here in case you two have any problems. I also can't listen to music, but I had to disconnect some of the electrical units to install that radio dish. And I can't listen to music because, just like you, I'm using our radio unit to keep in contact with you."  
  
Jet, while in the Bebop, crossed his arms over his chest and closed his eyes, "And as far as having Ed and Ein as company."  
  
Suddenly, and abruptly, loud noises of 'clang' rung in the background of Jet's voice transmission. Faye cocked an eyebrow up in confusion, what the ruckus was coming from. Jet's left eye twitched as he heard the voice of Ed let out a girly little response to Faye's thoughtful question.  
  
"Whoops, I guess I shouldn't touch that, huh Ein?" Ed rhetorically asked jokingly, as he spun herself out of Jet's kitchen and raced down the hallways, as Ein happily jogged behind her.  
  
"When Ed has nothing to do she becomes a damn nuisance, and Ein is no better," Jet grunted out angrily as he rubbed the temples of his head, attempting to massage the headache out of his head, "So if you think you're in a worse spot than me: you're dead wrong"  
  
Faye only response: a chuckle.  
  
"Maybe I don't have it so bad after all," Faye joking stated, knowing full well that it'd boil Jet's blood. And as Jet slumped in his chair, Faye could only listen to Ed's incessant, and overly enthusiastic, chimes of joy. And Ed's chimes of joy dealt with three things: breaking something on the Bebop out of curiosity, running rampant across the Bebop's rooms, or shouting out her thoughts (which made little sense to any other living being, except Ein). So Faye only slumped into her own chair and figured her own entertainment was to listen to Jet's despair.  
  
"I really hate this job sometimes," was Jet's only frustrated words for the next few hours.  
  
"You two whine way too much, you know that?" Spike jokingly broke in with a chuckle.  
  
"Find anything Spike?" butted in Jet, attempting to change the conversation.  
  
"Just did", replied Spike.  
  
***  
  
"Move out of the way!"  
  
Vash's voice boomed into the hospital set in the village of March. The hospital was small, and only had enough medical attendants for a handful of people. With the bloody bounty hunter in his arms, Vash rushed himself past the crowds and right to the head of the line. The hospital desk nurse went wide eyed in shock and terror at the site of the blood man, and the red cloaked fellow that carried him.  
  
"This man needs medical attention right away," Vash shouted nervously at the nurse.  
  
All waiting patients, who sat impatiently at the hospital waiting room, watched the scene unfold and could only watch in horror. The man that remained limp in Vash's arms was now sans-movement, and only the motion of his chest going up and down indicated he still had life in him. Vash looked down at his fallen adversary in horror and quickly snapped at the nurse.  
  
"He needs a doctor now!" he shouted fearfully, "If he doesn't get one, he could die! You can't let this man die, please!"  
  
The nurse, who still remained in shock at the scene set before her, quickly fumbled away from her desk and shouted out to a nearby medical assistant to get a doctor quickly. The nurse, who seemed to be quickly bewildered by the event taking place, quickly ran back to her desk and shouted for attendants to help the fallen victim into surgery. As two assistants quickly rushed in with a bed stretcher, Vash quickly placed his fallen adversary on the stretcher and allowed the medical caregivers to strap the unknown bounty hunter down and rush him into emergency. Vash watched uneasily as the man was rushed into emergency. His eyes began to swell up in tears, and his heart dropped to his feet.  
  
He wanted to wish the man well, but the words weren't able to be formed into actual audible words. He was choked up with a combination of worry, sadness, and regret. He still cussed himself beneath his breathe as to why he ever pulled the trigger, and why he ever shot back. He never thought it would end up like this, he never wanted to hurt the hunter that attacked him. The words of Rem continued to circle in his mind: No living being ever has the right to take the life another human being. In his slight trance, Vash looked down at his velvet red coat, which was now missing a sleeve that covered his right arm (the real one). The hospital's waiting room went silent as they all stared in fear at the man before them. Vash looked around nervously at the people, and realized the reason why they feared for their lives.  
  
Set on the wall adjacent to him was a sign that read WANTED: VASH THE STAMPEDE; REWARD - $$60,000,000,000. Vash scanned the room before him and than back at himself. He was standing still, with a sleeve ripped completely from his shirt, and blood stains across his already crimson coat. His velvet coat showed the markings of a nearly dead man, marks of his latest victim. He stared blankly at the people who feared for their lives, and only responded the best he could.  
  
"I'm sorry for the disturbance," his apology was soft spoken, and full of depression. He allowed his arms to drape at his sides, and simply turned his back to the crowd and walked out of the hospital. But before he did, he stopped dead in his tracks and looked up to the clouds above. As tears strolled down his cheeks, and his heart wrenched with regret, he whispered a soft prayer to the heavens above.  
  
"Please.let him live."  
  
*** As the voices of Jet Black and Faye Valentine infested the radio's audio transmission, Spike Spiegel scanned his area left and right. He was never one to quickly get bored while looking for some adventure. Of course he was never a good chess player with Jet, constantly falling asleep during play, but when it came to hunting bounty heads Spike was at full attention. As the argument between Jet and Faye began to die down, Spike finally located a city just below his ship. The city looked like something out of the old western movies he enjoyed as a child, but it was a city nonetheless. He didn't see many occupants traveling the streets, but he figured it was possibly lunch time around those parts.  
  
"Spike, find anything yet?" Jet asked from the cockpit of the Bebop.  
  
"I just did," Spike happily answered, "It looks like some sort of town, not sure if it's even inhabited though"  
  
"Only one way to find out," responded Jet, "Faye, you continue searching for areas around your sector. Spike, go land in the town and see what information you can find. Ask the police department of the town if they know any information that can help us. According to my sources, the guy is nearly impossible to find; especially since this planet has no communication services"  
  
"I got it, I'm going in and check things out. If I find anything, I'll get back on the ship and let you both know," Spike said as he began procedures to land the Swordfish II. As the race ship slowly descended from the sky, Spike continued to curiously stare at the city. The closer he got, the more barren it looked. He looked left and right, up and down, to find one form of human life. But after his watchful attempts, he could not find one person traveling the streets. The Swordfish II had finally landed safely to the ground in front of a large sign that depicted a welcome to the new town.  
  
"City of July," read Spiegel as he eyed the sign carefully. But as he opened the hatch to the Swordfish II, two things had bothered him. He leapt out of his ship and scanned the area attentively. He looked for any movement, any sound, any type of life, but the only thing he found in his scanning was the smell of something horrid. It was a smell Spike had sensed in his life more than once. He had even smelt this thing first hand. It was the smell of death.  
  
He took a few steps forward, the eerie silence ringing in his ears, as he noticed a sort of inscription on one of the monuments placed at the far end of the city. With his hands in his pockets, Spike slowly walked down the barren streets, peeking into the salons and houses as he did, only to find them to be empty. As he got closer to this tall white monument, his eyes thinned to slits in concern as the inscription on the white monument was as clear as day. The words were of red color, and painted sloppily. Spike took another wiff of the air around him and realized the inscription was written in blood.  
  
He stared hard at the name on the monument, and realized that the name written could only explain what happened to this barren city. He looked to his right and left once more, making sure he didn't sense any presence around him. But when he was sure of safety, he looked back at the words written in blood and read them aloud.  
  
"Knives" 


	3. Chapter 3: The Battles We Must Fight

iTwo days ago…/i  
  
Bodies; they lay scattered across a silent wooden floor in the rubble of what once was a salon. Men, women, children, black, or white were all dead. Their blank expressionless faces all signifying that their senses had left them, and their souls had taken flight. Puddles of blood surrounded each respective body as they lay still in their own filth. He did not know their names, nor did he care…to him, these living beings were nothing but pawns that he could play with at any given time. His gold stare glanced over his 'work', and he let out a faint, yet calm, smile. He was satisfied, and amused at the stench of death that surrounded him. But what he was most satisfied and amused about was the fact that it wasn't just any death that surrounded him, it was death that he had caused.  
  
He began to exit his battlegrounds, his feet grazing over the corpses of July. But as he reached the exit of the darkened saloon, he stopped for a moment and lifted his left hand to his view. His golden eyes cascaded over the hand that dealt the death, and another sinister smile stretched over his face in amusement. While staring at the hand in front of him, he kicked a few corpses away and made a path to the exit. With a simple push of his body, he opened the doors and walked out.  
  
"Have fun?" a mysterious broke the silence of the assassin, giving him a cocky gaze. The assassin didn't acknowledge the man with a gaze, stare, or even a peak. All he did was continue staring at the hand that had the powers of god (to take life away) hypnotically.  
  
"I don't usually waste my time on such vermin like that, but I had so much frustration in my soul," he said very calmly to his cohort, who remained slumped against the salon's outer brick wall, "He must've truly gotten on my nerves so much that my ability to hold back my emotions has vanished. It's funny really: disposing of these insects almost gave me an orgasmic pleasure. It's a good feeling to have when you know you are eliminating parasites from the world you live in. The funny thing about death: it's intoxicating"  
  
His soft spoken words, which would usually send a chill up a man's spine, only brought a chuckle from his cohort. The cohort's figure was one of a lean young Caucasian man with soothing brown eyes and slick/neat black hair. His eyes traveled to his golden eyed cohort, as he happily eyed him staring at his left hand.  
  
"Midvalley," he said coldly to his cohort (apparently named 'Midvalley'), "I want you to stay in this barren wasteland for me"  
  
Midvalley cocked an eyebrow up confusion, questioning the order presented to him.  
  
The assassin didn't need to look up, he could already sense Midvalley's questioning, and it made him chuckle, "It's going to be a quiet mission for you. Under orders of the master, I have been asked to send someone to wait here for Vash the Stampede"  
  
He slowly lifted his head, allowing his blue hair to slowly massage past his face and expose his calm gaze towards Midvalley, "I trust you have no problems with this decision"  
  
Midvalley only responded with a smile and a nod. He pushed himself off the wall and yanked up a certain instrument from the ground beside his feet. It was a large golden saxophone. Midvalley lifted the instrument into his arms and looked over at his companion in crime, "So what am I supposed to do while I wait?"  
  
It was at this moment that the blue haired assassin couldn't help but chuckle at his rhetorical question. He scanned the area around him, noticing the people surrounding them in a mixture of fear and shock (bearing witness to the stench of death in the air). His golden eyes cascaded over the fearful looks on the citizens, and slowly made their way to Midvalley the Hornfreak. His voice was soft, and his expression remained calm as he replied to Midvalley…  
  
"You can play them one last song"  
  
***  
  
"Aaah-teehee-Vash person is being currently hunted down by two hundred bounty hunters. But they are lost in subspace trying to find this galaxy, poor poor men"  
  
The voice of Ed continued to inform Jet of the current status of who they would have to look out for during their search. It was about a half hour ago that Jet finally figured a way to keep Ed busy, and to keep Ein content. Giving Ed the responsibility of keeping track of whose looking for Vash the Stampede, and keeping Ein content with a full bowl of dog food, Jet could finally rest silently in the cock pit and listen to nothing but Ed's reports.  
  
"Ed, make sure to block off any signals from hitting our ship. We don't know what kind of technology these ships have, and I don't want them tracking our radio emissions in order to find out how to get to this galaxy, okay?" Jet called out to Ed, in which Ed chimed in a response of 'No-problemo-señor-Jet'. Jet, again slumped back in yellow chair and closed his eyes.  
  
Ein wasn't barking, Ed wasn't causing a ruckus, and for once ever since gaining the Bebop crew, he was permitted to relax in peace and quiet. Jet Black, a former police officer of the Mars Police Force, was always used to action, adventure and constant activity; but as time grew on, Jet's need for serenity began to slowly increase. He constantly questioned if being in the bounty hunter game was for him. But no matter how much he complained and wished for quiet, there was always that young part of him that refused to release the adventure in his life.  
  
He hadn't heard from Faye or Spike in a long time, possibly even hours had passed. In the old days, Jet was always about himself and never cared for many others (other than his old time partner back in the Police Force, and his former girlfriend). And after his Police Force partner shot him in the arm (causing him to now wear a metal replacement arm) he had lost all trust in comrades. He cussed himself for worrying about comrades, but it couldn't help it. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, he cared about his Bebop crew partners; whether it was the fickle Faye or the silent Spike, he worried for them as if they were his siblings. He never realized when it happened, but before he knew it, having them, Ed and Ein around the Bebop became a ritual. Hell, he would go as far as calling a family. A very dysfunctional family, but a family none the less.  
  
"Ooh bad-man tried to hack our system," Ed chimed in.  
  
Jet's left eye went wide in wonder.  
  
"Who are you talking about, Ed?" questioned a curious Jet.  
  
"Hmm, code name R.D.," Ed replied as she 'hummed' to herself as she read the print of her findings, "The code name is from a bad-bad group of bad-bad men. Looks like it's from the Red Dragon Syndicate."  
  
Jet's eyes quickly widened in horror at the name of the Red Dragon Syndicate. He ran over to Ed and her computer. He placed a hand on Ed and shook her violently in nervousness, asking anxiously, "Ed, did they track us down?"  
  
"No, I just cut off their transmission," she said in a stuttering tone.  
  
Jet let out a quick sigh of relief. He whipped the sweat from his forehead, and left Ed to her business. He went back to his seat in the cockpit and awaited the calls from Spike and Faye. In his mind he wondered: Where the hell did Faye go? And what happened to Spike and the city he found? He contemplated searching for them, but voted against it and told himself.  
  
"I'll wait another two hours, before I take any drastic measures"  
  
***  
  
"Shit, Shit, SHIT!" Faye's audible frustrations would only be heard by her, as she fumbled to place the radio knob back upon her radio. She was too hard headed and bored out of her skull, she knew she shouldn't have done it, but she did it anyway. As if presenting her case in front of a jury, she cried out, "What the hell did you expect of me? I'm a woman, a woman with needs, and one of those needs is that I need some sort of excitement within each hour of everyday. Jet and Spike should've known this wasn't my kind of job. I'm not some kind of spy, paid to search around a void planet! I know Jet told me not to turn the radio on to a different frequency, but I just needed SOME kind of music"  
  
Than she cried out helplessly, "How was I supposed to know the stupid thing would break? OH NO!" she cried out in realization, as her Redtail continued to glide across the sky, "How am I supposed to get home?! I needed that thing to get coordinates from Jet, what the hell am I supposed to do now?!"  
  
The relentless cries of a childish female filled the Redtail's cockpit. Unfortunately, the sound waves would only reach her ears and no one else. She looked helplessly at the radio, as a cold sweat took over her face. She frustratingly attempted to place the broken knob back on the radio, and it seemed all but fixed. She smiled as the knob finally stayed on. Letting out a huge sigh of relief, she happily began to turn the knob back to channel 1 when suddenly…  
  
CRACKLE~!  
  
The radio short-circuited.  
  
Faye's two eyes looked helplessly into the distance, as she nervously chuckled to herself. As her eyes remained stone cold in fear, and her eyes began to twitch. The radio knob flew off once more and smacked her against her cheek. Her fear soon began to turn into anger. Her face grew bright red and her teeth began to relentlessly grind into each other. And with all the energy in her body, she began to throw a fit. Her fists and legs began to flail about in a stir, as she began cussing herself out loud.  
  
"SHIT! This stupid piece of crap!"  
  
***  
  
The man with the $$60,000,000,000 on his head sat quietly in the silent salon. In most towns, salons were filled with joy and noise of the happy folks that looked to forget their problems with a bottle of whiskey. But in this case, with a wanted man at their midst, the groups of people only muttered to one another. Vash only closed his eyes, attempting to concentrate hard enough to ignore the inane gossip of the crowd around him. It wasn't like this before. He didn't know how in the world his picture got published around the world, but it did nonetheless. Now, instead of just saying "I'm not Vash the Stampede", he would now have to learn to disguise himself.  
  
With a deep sigh, Vash lifted the bottle of alcohol up to his face and looked through the liquid within the bottle. He questioned it for a moment, as if questioning why he was even drinking this early in the morning. But than he realized he was asking a rhetorical question, because the answer was obvious.  
  
He wanted to forget this day ever happened.  
  
He took a long swig of his cold beer and placed the bottle down beside him. He rested his head in his open palm and looked blankly into the distance. His eyes weren't really focusing on anything in particular, just staring into nothingness. And as his head rested on his hand, he couldn't help but be engorged in the gossip around him.  
  
"Isn't that Vash the Stampede?" questioned one.  
  
"What the hell is that outlaw doing in a place like this?" hissed an angry on looker.  
  
"Oh my god, we should leave," whispered a nervous voice.  
  
It was nothing out of the usual really, but it became more frequent with the new picture hosted at every city on this planet. The incessant blabbering of John Q. Public couldn't help but find some way to burn his ears and send a pain in his heart. It wasn't right that he was being a public spectacle for something he didn't do…or something he just didn't remember. As his thoughts of the crimes infested his mind with self-asking-questions, he heard more of the gossip that surrounded him.  
  
"Jesus, should we call the cops?" said one nervously.  
  
"I don't feel comfortable here all of a sudden," grunted out a harsh male voice.  
  
And than suddenly…  
  
"So here you are," the female voice chimed in.  
  
Vash cocked an eyebrow up for a moment, wondering if the female voice that chimed was intended for him or not. Without looking, Vash reached over to lift up his beer bottle, but somewhere along the line…his hand was misplaced. His eyes widened as he pressed his hand against something else. It wasn't the cold hard glass of his alcoholic beverage, but a soft, yet firm, object that Vash couldn't help but squeeze. He turned his head slowly and…  
  
SMACK~!  
  
"OW! What the hell?" Vash said in a womanly cry, as he quickly straightened his diagonally knocked sunglasses and looked to see his assassin.  
  
And in reaction to finally realizing who stood before him, he gulped hard in fear.  
  
"Vash, if you EVER touch me there again, I'll knock a whole lot more than your sunglasses off your head," shouted none other than a female who Vash found quite common in his life these days. A female that worked for the Bernadeli Insurance Company and a female who had the job of following Vash the Stampede wherever he went (to insure he caused no harm to other cities). Her name was Meryl Stryfe.  
  
"I'm sorry, I was reaching for my drink," Vash said amusingly as he scratched the back of his head. But, as usually, it only evoked more anger in Meryl.  
  
"And what's with this drinking of yours?" Meryl hissed out, "You know you get even dumber when you drink. Who knows what you might do? Blow up a few cities, get into a gun duel, or even molest a few females! Just because we have to keep tracking you down, doesn't mean we have to watch you act like a pre-pubescent jackass!"  
  
Vash sighed in an 'I-Give-Up' manner, and looked to grab his bottle of beer. But as he reached over Meryl's shoulder, he found the alcohol beverage to be gone. He cocked an eyebrow up in confusion, but only until he felt a soft tap on his shoulder. He slowly turned around to look over his shoulder and saw none other than Meryl's joyous cohort for the B.I.C. (Bernadeli Insurance Company) Milly Thompson.  
  
"Now, now, Mr. Vash," she said jokingly, in an almost school-marm voice, "You know that you shouldn't be drinking this early in the day. Why don't you settle for some nice Tea instead? It's not healthy to drink these kind of drinks anyway, I think you should kick that nasty habit in the butt right away"  
  
"Yeah, I'll remember that," Vash said in the same manner of his sigh, as he shrugged.  
  
But in a quick moment, almost in a second's time, he felt a strong grip around the collar of his red vest. He snapped his in front of him and was face to face, nose to nose, with Meryl. Her face was bright red in frustration as she roared out at the wanted outlaw.  
  
"So where the hell have YOU been?" she hissed out angrily, "We were in July city one night, and suddenly you vanished the next morning. Are you trying to avoid us or something? All we're trying to do is help you, you insensitive jerk!"  
  
Vash wanted to say his real reason for leaving them. He didn't want to get them in danger. He didn't want Meryl, Milly, or anyone else get involved in his own problems. His problems were his own and he would deal with them by himself. In his mind; one should take care of his priorities and not bother anyone else with them. But instead, he kept his usual 'idiotic' persona and just bumbled out the best thing he could.  
  
"I guess you wouldn't believe that I had a very important business meeting?" he said with a goofy smile, closing his eyes amusingly…before he got a large downward punch to the top of his head by Meryl Stryfe.  
  
As Meryl continued to banter Vash with questions and discipline, Milly couldn't help but notice the condition of Vash's red velvet coat. She looked at it for a moment and not only noticed the dark stains on the coat, but also the fact that his bare arm was exposed due to a ripped sleeve. As Meryl continued to banter Vash (and shake him violently), Milly tapped Vash on the shoulder and softly asked.  
  
"Mr. Vash, what happened to that beautiful red coat of yours?"  
  
And thus, for the next hour, Vash explained what had happened to the two females that looked for him long and hard…  
  
***  
  
iPresent…/i  
  
The barren city known as July surrounded Spike, as his eyes continually gazed at the name written in blood at the top of this white monument. 'Knives' he whispered to himself again in confusion. As he stood there in silence, listening to the whistling wind pass through the empty stores and homes, he questioned what had happened to this town and what this name symbolized. In his mind, he questioned if this was some sort of doing by the bounty head he was after.  
  
"A destroyer of two towns, and a man who blew a hole through one of the moons on this planet," Spike whispered to himself, questioning the validity of the possibility that Vash the Stampede was indeed the doer of this wrong, "What happened to all these people? Who did this? Was it this Vash? Or was it someone else?"  
  
The questions continued to engorge his mind as his eyes couldn't help but remain fixed on the symbol written in blood. What was a 'Knives'? Did it represent some sort of gang? Spike just couldn't figure out what had happened to the city. He didn't see any corpses, but the stench of death was fresh in the air. It didn't make sense; if it was a gang job, they wouldn't have went out of there way to bury the dead, they would just leave the bodies with no souls for the insects to consume. His eyes thinned to slits in confusion, but quickly shifted to the side as he heard something in the distance. He slowly turned around to face the origin of the footsteps, and eyed the streets in front of him.  
  
With no moments haste he slowly reached to his gun holster and pulled out his 9mm pistol and brought it to his side, grasping the handle with both hands. The bounty hunter's eyes scanned all around, attempting to find the source of this noise. Maybe it was a survivor of the attack that occurred here, or maybe it was the man who committed the attack. He didn't know, but he was sure going to give the man a welcome; even if it was with a pull of a trigger.  
  
He looked to the left slightly, and saw nothing.  
  
He looked to the right out of the corners of his eyes, and saw nothing.  
  
He looked over his shoulder, and saw nothing.  
  
But when he scanned in front of him, he finally saw the source of the noise. It was a man, dressed very professionally in a blue suit with nothing but a saxophone in his grasp. Spike, with his pistol still pointed at the ominous figure, yelled out to the man.  
  
"Who the hell are you?" Spike said, calling out to the mysterious figure that remained leaning against the wall of the barren saloon. But the figure did not respond, he only coldly stared into Spike's eyes and looked back down at the ground. Spiegel took another step forward, making sure his pistol was aimed in between the eyes of the peculiar figure.  
  
"I asked you a question," Spike coldly said as he kept the pistol at head level, "Who the hell are you? Did you see what happened here?"  
  
The unknown man pushed himself off the wall and stood very still, staring blankly into the eyes of Spike Spiegel. Spike felt a sudden uneasiness about the man, but kept his cool and refused to lower his gun. But as Spike opened his mouth to call out once more, he finally got a response. The mysterious man lowered his head for a moment and grinned amusingly before verbally responding to this man.  
  
"I'm surprised someone is still alive from this city," he said calmly, "I guess I missed one; but I'm glad I did. Now I have something to do while I wait for Vash the Stampede"  
  
iDid he just say Vash the Stampede?/i  
  
Spike's eyes quickly went wide at attention, and his pistol remained in its position. Whoever this man was, he was indeed the assailant of this town. The reason that death infested the air he was breathing finally made sense; it wasn't corpses that he smelled, the stench of death was coming from this man.  
  
"You said Vash the Stampede," Spike said with an amusing and casual smile, "Are you a bounty hunter as well? Or are you just some sort of sick and twisted mass murderer of this planet?"  
  
The assailant's eyes met Spike's again, as he chuckled at the question and responded while looking into the distance, "I'm neither, really; these people were just my bait, that's all"  
  
"Bait? Is this some sort of way to get the big bounty head?" Spike questioned.  
  
"You could say that. But I am not after the money, I am simply after his life," the man said calmly as he began to lift his saxophone to his mouth. As he did, Spike's finger began to graze the trigger. The man cocked an eyebrow up at Spike Spiegel and simply asked the man, "Tell me something; are you an inhabitant of this dead city?"  
  
"I'm just a wandering traveler," Spike said in response.  
  
"So why did you come?" the man questioned.  
  
"Why do you care?" responded Spike.  
  
"I like to know my victims before I eliminate them," he said coldly.  
  
"And you think I'm going to be one of those victims?" Spike asked rhetorically (and mockingly), "Getting a little ahead of yourself, aren't you? Let me remind you whose carrying a pistol and whose carrying a musical instrument"  
  
Spike's finger continued to press a bit more on the trigger, preparing to blow this man's head off. Spike was never really one to endorse death, but for a man who killed an entire city; he had it coming to him. Spike, with a serious expression across his face, was not going to take chances with this man. Although his only weapon was a saxophone, something about this man didn't set well with Spike. And as he always said, follow your feelings.  
  
"Do you think you're any threat to me?" the man asked behind a chuckle, "A word to the not so wise: Don't judge a book by its cover"  
  
"And a word to the oblivious: Never underestimate an opponent," quickly retorted Spike as he pulled the trigger and fired free one of the bullets, aiming it directly at the murderer.  
  
***  
  
bChapter 4/b  
  
(Best heard through the song "Fool's Paradise" off the Trigun soundtrack)  
  
"In life we always travel the trials and tribulations of everyday living. But when those battles are forced into your road of life, you never want others to take the responsibility of protecting you. The man called Spike Spiegel entered his mission, never knowing the dangers that lay before him. Midvalley the Hornfreak, made dangerous through his powerful tune, is blinded by the intoxication that his master shares of death. A man with blue hair and a golden gaze has a mission against me; but with another adversary closing in, he looks to feed his need for death…onto this young bounty hunter.  
  
In life we are told to never play the role of god and take another's life. But when your life is in danger, is that your only choice?"  
  
Chapter 4: Decisions of Death. 


	4. Chapter 4: Decisions of Death

The ominous figure softly walked through the shadowy and abandoned halls of nowhere. His blue hair gently falling over the left side of his face, as his golden gaze continued to look hypnotically at his left hand and arm. He grasped his arm with his right hand and slowly massaged his forearm slowly, as if petting it for a job well done. A satisfied grin stretched over his face, but he quickly averted his attention to the scene in front of him and allowed his arm to fall to his side.  
  
We see before him what looks like an old building complex that was long forgotten. The stench of death infests the naked halls, and could overcome any normal human being. But unlike normal human beings, this man smiled. This blue haired assassin stared forward with the same sinister smile he had since leaving the city of July. He his eyes only stared forward, as the halls began to gain a bit of luminosity. A strange blue glow began to shine at the end of the empty halls, as the light ran over the golden eyed warrior's face to reveal his true identity. He was a man that the one called Vash the Stampede knew all to well.  
  
The mysterious figure, dressed in a strange white coat decorated in human skulls, continued forth towards the hypnotic blue light. As he got closer to the illuminating hue, the source of the glow could be made clearer with every step his took towards it. The object wasn't clear in definition, but its features were quickly noticed. It looked as if it were some sort of large glass holding area, filled with a glowing blue liquid. Within the liquid filled glass was a mysterious figure, floating softly within the tanks liquid. The shadowy figure, which seemed to be upside down, was connected to numerous life support systems that were attached to every main vein in his body.  
  
The blue haired menacing man stepped forward towards the tank, and once he remained in front of it he knelt down to one knee. It wasn't as if he was weakened, it was a show of respect. As if he were bowing down to a greater power, he lowered his head (as if not worthy to see his king's face) and rested his elbow upon his knee. Through his mind, he heard the voice of his mentor, and responded justly.  
  
"The termination of Vash the Stampede is underway, I have placed the men in separate cities to await the foolish warrior," he spoke calmly as he listened further through his mind. There was no audible response from the floating figure, but it seemed they were connected telepathically. It was also obvious that whatever this 'figure' told him sent a bit of amusement in the blue haired warrior.  
  
"So, there seems to be a battle ensuing within the city of July," he said with an amused grin, "Has Midvalley reached Vash the Stampede?"  
  
A strong buzz overcame the room, and caused the golden eyed man to narrow his eyes in confusion, "He is battling another? Is he a threat?"  
  
...  
  
"I see," he said, this time with a blank expression on his face. He looked up to his god and only nodded before standing up from his knelt (bowing down) position. He stared hard at the floating man and nodded in agreement to the telepathic message, "I guess we have nothing to worry about. It seems we are not the only ones after Vash the Stampede. Do not fear, master, I will make sure that it is us who deal the hand of death to him, and no other. No bounty hunter shall keep us from achieving out utopia. Our utopia will be his grave. I, Legato Bluesummers, shall not allow the vermin of human kind take what is rightfully ours"  
  
"No one shall stand in our way of our utopia. We will eliminate Vash the Stampede, and no lowly human can beat us to it," Legato stated coldly. He turned his back to his 'master', and walked the same path he had come from. But as he continued walking, a loud buzz overcame the room and the tank began to glow a bright hue of green and yellow. Legato looked over his shoulder calmly, with a serious expression across his face. Whatever the 'master' told him, he agreed with a simple nod.  
  
"I'm sure /b will meet him there"  
  
***  
  
Spike's finger continued to press a bit more on the trigger, preparing to blow this man's head off. Spike was never really one to endorse death, but for a man who killed an entire city; he had it coming to him. Spike, with a serious expression across his face, was not going to take chances with this man. Although his only weapon was a saxophone, something about this man didn't set well with Spike. And as he always said, follow your feelings.  
  
"Do you think you're any threat to me?" the man asked behind a chuckle, "A word to the not so wise: Don't judge a book by its cover"  
  
"And a word to the oblivious: Never underestimate an opponent," quickly retorted Spike as he pulled the trigger and fired free one of the bullets, aiming it directly at the murderer. It was as if time had slowed down to a snail's crawl, as the bullet traveled straight towards its target. Spike looked directly into the eyes of his adversary, still feeling a bit uneasy at why this man seemed so calm. How did he kill all of those men with no weapon? – is all he could think as his bullet went through the air waves and closer to its target.  
  
Spike watched the eyes of his latest enemy, and noticed nothing but calmness in his expression. The man known as Midvalley (unbeknownst to Spike at the time) glared directly into Spike's eyes, as he reached over to his horn and allowed the mouth piece to rest in between his lips. And just as the bullet seemed all but a couple of feet away from the target sand quickly stormed upward from the ground! Spike's eyes widened in shock, as Midvalley had played a simple tune on his horn at the exact moment that the sand rose from the ground, forming a scratchy sand wall that would slowly disappear back into the ground.  
  
But as the sand cleared, the figure was gone. Spike looked in amazement as he looked dead into the bullet hole he had made, directly where his opponent had been standing. Spiegel, in his confused (and shocked) expression, regretted to keep his eye on his target.  
  
"Do you understand what I said before now?"  
  
The calm, yet cool, voice came from behind Spiegel's shoulder. Spiegel quickly spun around with his pistol held high and fired quickly over his shoulder. The bullet completely missed Midvalley, and allowed the Hornfreak to blast another tune and allowed a strip of air waves to fly through the ground. Spike watched, as he rolled on the ground, as it seemed like an earthquake was erupting beneath him. But it was something more.  
  
As Spike stood up, and the waves of sand got closer to him...it hit him hard in the shoulder. It was like getting hit with a wrecking ball. The pain was great, and harsh, as it sent the bounty hunter spinning in mid air and crashing back onto the ground.  
  
"What the hell?" grunted out Spiegel, as he quickly grabbed his shoulder in pain, attempting to keep pressure on it, "What the hell was that?"  
  
The whispered grunts were audibly heard by Midvalley, who responded with a devilish, and sensual, grin. He looked over at Spiegel once more and winked in his direction, before playing a tune on his horn again and began gliding across the sandy ground. Waves came barreling forward like miniature subway trains, all of them aiming at Spiegel. Spike in a feeble attempt to get away rolled to his stomach and pushed off the ground with both feet. With a great amount of strength, Spike managed to spring backward enough to back flip and avoid two of the waves. Unfortunately, a third came careening behind him and hit him hard in the back. The secondary hit sent Spike flying forward into the ground. Spike's face planted into the sandy dunes, and his body struggling to get up. This had caused Midvalley to chuckle a bit before adding insult to injury via some verbal abuse.  
  
"What happened to the man who seemed so sure of disposing of me?" Midvalley chimed in a satisfied tone.  
  
"Who the hell are you?" Spike grunted out behind struggled breathes of air.  
  
"Why do you wish to know?" Midvalley asked calmly.  
  
It was at this moment, Midvalley cocked an eyebrow up in confusion. The reason for it was simple: His opponent, who had just been given two harsh blows to his body, was actually grinning. Spike, behind a sandy face, grinned devilishly in a clandestine manner. He lifted his head slightly and allowed his gleam to peer into Midvalley's eyes.  
  
"Because I like to know my victims before I eliminate them," Spike said arrogantly.  
  
Midvalley only responded with a playful humph and responded, "I am Midvalley the Hornfreak. I must say, you are quite cocky. But what can I expect from a simple minded human being such as yourself?" he rhetorically asked. He raised his saxophone up once more and inhaled. Just as he looked to play, he suddenly heard a bullet being fired. Midvalley found it quite amusing that Spike would attempt the same thing once more and was quick to divert it with the same technique used before (his wave wall). But as he glided over to reach behind Spike, something happened.  
  
Spike was not there.  
  
The shifty bounty hunter had quickly dived into the nearby empty market store, and in his place was a timed grenade. Midvalley's eyes widened, as Spike rolled behind the inner wall and quickly flipped the switch. Midvalley roared out in an attempt to block the impact, but all he could do was prevent death with his sound waves and gliding. The explosion was immense, and sent Midvalley soaring through the air like a submarine missile in water (going horizontally at a rapid speed). Like a rag doll, Midvalley was hurled into one of the cement house's walls. The impact of the explosion caused Midvalley's body into the wall a few inches, before collapsing to the ground.  
  
As a smoky residue filled the barren town of July from the explosion, Spike found this the perfect opportunity to take advantage. With a quick swipe of his hand, lifting his gun from the floor, Spike began charging through the smoke in search of his opposition.  
  
Midvalley, who still remained unmoving on his face and stomach, could hear the footsteps of Spike Spiegel getting closer to his fallen body. With a quick showmanship of strength, Midvalley grabbed his saxophone and blew into it as hard as he could, sending a HUGE wave into the smoky clouds left behind from the attack. Midvalley's body ached, and lifting the sax itself was a chore, but he had no choice. In order to live, he would have to push himself.  
  
And as the wave hit the smoke, the bloody roar of Spike Spiegel could be heard, and his body hitting the ground was a sound that made Midvalley smile. The Hornfreak quickly slumped against the broken wall, allowing his body to rest. Whether his opponent was dead or not didn't matter to him, this was his chance to regain some strength.  
  
"So tell me, do you like my playing?" he whispered rhetorically between heavy breaths.  
  
***  
  
We are taken to the village of March once again. The small town, called a city due to the lack of population on the planet, was a quiet and joyous city. It was the type of place where everyone knew who everyone else was, and a place where friends were around the corner no matter where you went. It was a peaceful place to live, and a place where one could enjoy their life. But seeing as how the city of March was so tight in relationships, that also meant that news and rumors spread quicker than any other city nearby. The rumors of Vash the Stampede being in their small city spread like wild fire. Emotions of fear, anger, and frustration couldn't help but rise from the town. Some feared their lives, others hated the outlaw, and some were too frustrated with daily life to want to deal with something else.  
  
But the most frustrated out of the whole town was a female who had rented a hotel for this outlaw to stay at, only to find out...  
  
"He checked out?!"  
  
The displeasure in Meryl's voice was quite noticeable as she protested firmly against the desk clerk. The clerk of the hotel only raised his arms in peace, to show no harm, and looked to audibly respond, if he hadn't been cut off by Meryl. The young dark haired Insurance employee was wearing nothing more than her white pajama tops and bottoms. It was early in the morning that she checked in on Vash's room (of course they got separate rooms. She wouldn't dare allow Vash into HER room...that pervert). Last night, Vash explained to the girls of his situation with the bulky bounty hunter. And although the man survived, the guilt was still ridden in Vash's soul.  
  
But after all Meryl did: Digging up enough money to get Vash his own hotel room, and to wake up to a missing Vash for the hundredth time. Who the hell did he think he was?  
  
"And you just let him go? Do you know who that was?" argued Meryl.  
  
"Of course I knew," responded the elderly clerk, who dressed very formal for such a slow job, "That's why I let him go missy. I don't want any trouble in this here hotel complex, and bringing a guy like him is just asking for trouble. You think I want a gun fight in the middle of my place of business? Hell no!"  
  
"That wasn't going to happen," Meryl quickly retorted.  
  
"Psht, says you," grunted out the clerk, "I don't know where you've been hiding the last century lady, but that there was Vash the Stampede. He destroyed two cities all on his own and shot a hole through our moon right there. You must be crazy to think I'll coax him to stay longer! If a guy like that wants to leave...he'll leave on his own accord, missy"  
  
Frustration was the only emotion filling Meryl's status, as she shook an angry fist in front of her and swiftly turned her back to the clerk. With no further dialogue being said between herself and the clerk, she stomped off in a huff. On her way back to her room, Milly was seen groggily stepping forward from the open door. Rubbing her eyes and attempting to wipe off the exhaustion of waking up, she called out to Meryl blindly.  
  
"Meryl, what are you doing up so early?" she questioned tiredly, and behind a yawn.  
  
Meryl grunted past Milly and stomped back into the room. Milly's eyes widened in confusion of the 'cold shoulder', and quickly went to see what had happened. With nothing but concern, Milly walked over to Meryl. Meryl had seated herself harshly into her bed and planted her face into her pillow sideways, only exposing half of her face to Milly. A worried Milly sat beside her comrade and looked down at her obviously angry face.  
  
"Meryl, what happened?" she said, looking around the room and obliviously assuming, "Did Mr. Vash sneak in her last night or something?"  
  
Meryl's eye twitched in frustration, and she reaction by closing her eyes and digging her face fully into the pillow. Behind a muffled tone (muffled due to the pillow and its casing covering her mouth) she responded to Milly's concern.  
  
"He left again," she said in her angry and muffled tone.  
  
"Why did he leave? Did you two have a fight or something?" Milly asked curiously.  
  
"I didn't do anything of the sort, he just left. He just left like he always does, with no reason behind it," Meryl stated 'matter-of-factly'.  
  
"Do you think he's got to attend other business?"  
  
"What other business could he have? Honestly, Milly," Meryl hissed out as she lifted her head from her pillow a bit to eye Milly. Milly only responded with her usual cheerful smile and pat on her Meryl's shoulder.  
  
"Well, we can't worry too much about it," Milly said happily, attempting to shift the tone of the conversation, "Well, I'm going to make us some coffee, and after that, I guess we'll just have to find Mr. Vash again. He couldn't have gone to far now, considering he couldn't have left more than five hours ago. If we leave soon, we can find him quickly, what do you say?"  
  
Without any audible response from Meryl, Milly got up from the bed and headed to the hotel room kitchen. With a song in her heart, and a hum filling the air, Milly began to make the arising liquid of the morning. As Milly went about her morning chores, Meryl sat up from her bed in contemplation. As her face blankly stared into the wall, and the window allowed rays of light to spill upon her body, she could only fathom a few reasons for Vash's constant disappearance. The most frequent reason being: He's hiding something.  
  
***  
  
The wind had a chill to it on that morning day, something very unusual for the planet in which he had inhabited for so many years. Vash the Stampede left just a few hours ago, and began his journey by foot towards another town. Some would consider him a traveler, or a wanderer; others (like Meryl and Milly) would consider him a sleaze ball for leaving them. He was neither of them in reality. Vash was not a traveler, because travelers only travel for enjoyment and this was not a vacation for him. And Vash was not a betrayer; he only left for one reason. This one reason was the only reason that Vash would ever leave such beautiful girls; he wanted to save them from the dangers of his life. In his mind, there was no question that trouble followed him more than a baby calf follows its mother.  
  
He had walked through the barren desert ever since narrowly escaping the girls early in the morning. With his clothing, some food, and a few other items stashed in an over-the-shoulder storage bag, he walked towards the edge of a cliff and looked down over its horizon. Below the thick cliff was the city he had just escaped, the city of March. With regret in his heart, and a deep sigh spilling from deep within his chest, he sadly smiled at the city and nodded in its direction.  
  
"I'm sorry Insurance girls," he said in a soft voice, "I'm sorry I have to leave you again, I hope you can forgive me"  
  
"Aww, are you having girl problems, Vash the Stampede?"  
  
The voice came from behind Vash, and held a raspy arrogant tone to it. Vash quickly turned around to see the man behind the voice. Behind him stood a short man with a black veil over his face and a body surrounded by a circular armor covered in shiny silver spikes. Vash eyed the odd looking figure and narrowed his eyes in a mixture of angry emotions. He could sense this man was not here to be kind, nor was he here to be a friend of Vash.  
  
"Who are you?" ordered Vash the Stampede.  
  
"I am Mine the E.G. Mine, you little maggot, and you should consider yourself a very lucky man," he said arrogantly, "Firstly you have just saved that town below, because if I went there and did not find you...well, there would be more deaths caused by you than ever before. And secondly, you should feel very lucky and honored that the man that will kill you...will be someone as skilled as I"  
  
Vash's hand quickly grazed his Silver Pistol, as his eyes locked dead into Mine's.  
  
"Why do you want my life? The bounty?" Vash hissed in question.  
  
Mine couldn't help but chuckle at Vash's ignorance, "Fool, do you honestly think I give a damn about that bounty on your head. What do I look like? Some kind of lowly bounty hunter? Sorry, but unlike them I have two things: class and skill. So, I'm sorry Vash but the price on your head doesn't interest me in the slightest"  
  
"Than what does?"  
  
"Well, you're Vash the Stampede," he said with a devilish smile behind his black veil, "And killing you would place me as the greatest Gung-Ho Gun of all time"  
  
The name of the GHG caused Vash to suddenly freeze up in his tracks. The name of the sinful group of murderers sent a chill up Vash's spine, and caused him to suddenly grow a sense of fear. He had heard of the group, and had encountered them in the past, but they were of different people and under different leadership. The scars on his body proved to the world that he was indeed a survivor of the GHG in the past, but now it seemed they looked for more.  
  
"So, Johan sent you for revenge," he said. In Vash's memory banks, it was a man named Johan who once headed the devilish group of the Gung-Ho Guns. He was a simple man with a genius mind, who would kill all who stepped in his way for domination. Unfortunately, three years ago, he had vanished...many celebrated, hoping his death. But it seemed Vash, and the people, celebrated too soon.  
  
But a mighty laugh broke Vash's question, "Johan? That moron died three years ago. Are you that clueless to the dangers that you are in? Is Vash the Stampede that much of a dumb blonde? Jesus Christ, Johan was over thrown by us a long time ago. Not to mention with a little help from our new leader"  
  
Vash's eyes narrowed, "And who is that? Did he send you after me?"  
  
"He's a man that won't make the mistake that Johan did. Unlike Johan, this man won't be defeated by such a jackass such as yourself. Legato is much more intelligent than that"  
  
"Legato?!"  
  
The name was quickly recognized by Vash the Stampede. One of the many history lessons on Vash that many have not known quickly arose in Vash's mind. Flash backs of a young man standing behind a shadowy figure that seemed to hold a gun to Vash's frame. It was of a long time ago, and Vash could not help but have his flash back zoom in on the young apprentice's eyes. They had a gold tint to them, and a dead look upon them. It was Legato at his younger age, under the influence of a greater evil. The greater evil of the shadowed figure before Legato.  
  
"So you're working for him," Vash said as he grabbed his silver pistol and raised it. He lifted the pistol up just far enough and aimed directly at Mine. Mine responded with a hearty laugh and a few insults and comments.  
  
"Oh, it seems Vash the Stampede has some life in him after all. Is this the coward who I hear won't kill?" Mine said matter-of-factly, "Well, here's a bit of advice. The only way you can stop me from killing you...is by killing me. So how the hell are you going to stop me without death, huh?"  
  
Unfortunately for Mine, his inane insults and bantering allowed Vash to fully scan his opposition. He looked all over Mine for some sort of opening to shot at without killing the man. Mine was covered by a thick circular shield of armor, and each side holding a silver spike to prevent any striking attacks. The only thing that was left open was his face; or was it? As Mine's gums continued to flap with a few provoking words, Vash noticed one area on Mine's body that could be shot and end the battle all together. He saw Mine's hands, strapped to thin lines that almost seemed like pieces of thing cable wire. With a bit of concentration, Vash could hear the lines attached to something metallic.  
  
"HEY! Are you listening to me?" Mine asked angrily.  
  
With a dumbfounded smile on his face, Vash closed his eyes amusingly as he scratched the back of his head, "Well to be honest with you – not really"  
  
Mine's eye began to twitch and his teeth began to grind against each other, "Oh, I see, try to be an arrogant prick with me, will you? I'll make you pay for that decision pretty boy"  
  
And within a millisecond, Vash found exactly what those wires were attached to. Mine's fingers pressed downwards and suddenly a large BOOM was heard exploding from his armor. The silver spikes that provided extra protection suddenly flung free from their prison and spread out from their respective areas. Vash's eyes widened in shock as he quickly began to dodge the flying objects ready to impale him. But with almost cat like speed, Vash dove underneath three spikes, rolled forward and found himself face to face with Mine.  
  
The usually arrogant Mine suddenly began to sweat coldly as he found Vash's pistol right up to his chest. With a flash of an instant, the bullet released itself from the barrel and found itself hitting Mine's hands and breaking the threads that controlled the armor's spiky offense. Mine quickly roared out in pain, as he felt the bullet go straight through his palms and exit into the desert ground. Almost immediately following the gunshot, the armor quickly fell apart and crashed onto the floor in pieces beside Mine.  
  
Mine fell to his knees in pain, and stared hypnotically at his hands which now had a gaping bullet hole through them. Blood poured profusely from the open wound, and nearly caused Mine to throw up from the site of his own blood. Vash closed his eyes in a regretful fashion and quickly grabbed the back of Mine's shirt and tore off a large amount of it. He threw it to Mine's arm and began to walk past the injured offender. Vash looked at the scene before him: Spikes lay across the plain, and shattered armor spilled across the sand. He placed his tinted sunglasses on and spoke over his shoulder at Mine.  
  
"Tell Legato that I'm ready for anything he's going to dish out. But this time tell him to target me, not others," Vash said coldly as he continued to walk down the desert plains, "And wrap that wound up, you don't want to loose too much blood"  
  
***  
  
Faye Valentine; today she would be known as the definition of insane worry. It had been hours since she had played with the radio, and it had been hours since she had been able to contact Jet or Spike. She was notably worried, and was desperately looking for a town to just reassure herself that she wasn't the only living thing on this barren wasteland. The Redtail continued to glide over the skies, as Faye's eyes scanned nervously over the areas surrounding her as she sped through the atmosphere.  
  
"There has just got to be a place somewhere near here with actual living people," she pleaded to herself, "I can't be the only living being around here, there just has to be a town or something"  
  
She repeated similar audible pleas over and over, convincing herself to continue her search for life. A search that was once for a village to find information on Vash the Stampede was now a search for any living beings. For some reason, a female who was usually a loner seemed to long for some sort of company. She figured it must be because she was in a foreign place with no technology around her. In these days, technology does form itself into a temporary device of keeping oneself from getting lonely.  
  
Faye's beautiful gaze was now one of pale fear, as she looked frenziedly looked for some sort of village. And just as all hope seemed lost, her radar had detected something. Granted, the radar was not one to pick up life-forms (unless DNA was placed in the search engine), and usually picked up high electrical frequencies. Faye cocked an eyebrow up in confusion.  
  
"I thought this planet lacked any sufficient electrical units," she muttered in confusion to herself.  
  
She followed her radar to about twenty miles due north, and glided her Redtail over a village. She nearly wept from joy at the sight of the busy town. The houses were not made of the usual metallic structure of her galaxy, but of rough cement (which is very rare to Faye these days). The town kind of reminded her of old western films from before she was awakened from her cryogenic state. She peered over the village, and found the source of what triggered her radar.  
  
It looked like a large light bulb attached to numerous cables and supported by metal pillars. She narrowed her eyes in deep thought, attempting to figure out exactly what she was seeing. But after drawing a blank, she sighed deeply and just shrugged.  
  
"Why question it? If they have a power source like that, maybe they have something to repair this piece of crap," and with a hissed tune, Faye slapped the radio at the side annoyingly and decided to move the Redtail into landing mode. As the Redtail lowered to the ground, she couldn't help but smile in relief at all the people who crowded its streets. She was not alone; not like she cared, of course. 


End file.
